Spinning is the new avoidance

I was sick with an ill-timed, weekend stomach virus and after a not-too-successful attempt at getting some gardening done Saturday, I retreated into the house to suffer in silence* and total non-productivity for the remainder of the afternoon.

By late afternoon Sunday my new diet of delicious extra-dry saltines and ginger ale had restored me to a point that I wanted to do something that felt productive but didn't offer too much in the way of personal exertion. I didn't feel like knitting on either of my current projects (and frankly, wasn't up to working on either of them), but my current personal growth rules prevent me from starting a new knitting project. What to do...?

Well, spinning certainly doesn't count as a project as far as I can see.

In fact, it's practically a house chore since I have all this stored fiber cluttering up the house that needs to be processed and gotten out of the way. And I wouldn't be spinning any new fiber! Heavens no, this is old, old fiber from a Black Sheep Fiber Gathering event several years ago and I'm sure it should be spun up before the expiration date. Did I mention it's old?
::cough::

Moving on...

Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking either.
I think I was trying to 'buy something different than I usually buy'.
I succeeded.

The fiber:
2 oz of 50% Merino/30% silk/20% angora blend dyed by Dicentra Designs

The colorway:
BRIGHT Rainbow
Official name is currently unknown. (The label has wandered off. I'm hoping it surfaces at some point.)

The goal:
light fingering weight 3 ply (Navajo plied)


I had already spun a healthy sized sample and knit up a swatch with it a few months ago in order to check the length of the color repeats:

extra large swatch

My plan is to use this yarn in a stranded knitting project in the future and the swatch had the length of the color repeats I was looking for, but there's a slight problem. The swatch is knitted flat and the project I have in mind would be in the round so it would have double the fabric and, as a result, the current color repeats would be half the length.

To solve this, instead of splitting the roving I should just spin it as is and problem solved. Unfortunately, I had proactively split all the roving already. (note to self: next time, maybe wait until *after* sampling to make decisions about the roving).

Of course I can still spin it with the longer repeats by splitting out the color sequences, it just would have been easier to do if I'd left the roving as-is until the sample was finished.

Did I say I only wanted to *feel* productive? Well mission accomplished!
Not much to see here.

*my motto is 'I don't mind suffering in silence as long as everyone knows about it first.'

Hobbies are like potato chips

What's the best solution to not having enough time to devote to one's current hobbies? Why to get a new one of course!

I am the proud owner of a Schacht Mighty Wolf 8 harness loom!

Here's a photo from the sale listing:


I don't actually have it in my possession yet since there are some logistical issues involved in picking it up (like a 456 mile one-way drive for one thing and dog-sitting arrangements for another) so I'll be driving down to get it in a couple of weeks.

Well, *I* won't actually be driving, Mr. CPA will since it's his truck and I don't like to drive it (big truck + short person = not a good match*). Have I mentioned lately that I have the best husband ever?


*for me, YMMV of course, I realize lots of other short people drive big vehicles with no problems whatsoever. I am just not one of them, unfortunately.

Sample Sweaters

I'm a sucker for shop samples. The opportunity to try on a sweater to see that it fits and flatters me is reassuring and alleviates the anxiety that I usually have when knitting a sweater (I fret the whole time that I'm spending weeks (or months) knitting something that in the end will make me look frumpy/lumpy/dumpy).

So, yeah, shop samples seem to practically propel my credit card out of my wallet to buy the pattern and yarn! Which brings me to my current project: Sommelier (Raveled here)

Black Water Abbey Yarns was at Madrona this year and, as usual, had a nice selection of sample sweaters to try on. The Sommelier sweater was there and several of us tried it on and liked it. I bought the pattern and, since BWA was out of the color I wanted, bought the yarn for the sweater from Shelly at Butternut Woolens.

I cast on right away and have made good progress (it's relative - I'm a slow-ish knitter)

Not shown but also done: the sleeves

There are a couple of minor errors in the pattern but easy enough to spot and work around, I've listed all the details on my Ravelry project page.

I finished up the sleeves and prepared to sew them in but there was a slight problem.


Worked as written, the sleeve cap is several inches smaller than the armscye. Mary Scott Huff (the designer) has been quite helpful. We've compared photos and her sleeve and body both have the same number of lace repeats as mine but clearly the sleeves on mine need to be longer for this to work.

So the sweater is in project time out for just a bit.

Because I'm trying to work on my bad habits of procrastination and avoidance that have caused many a project to come to a dead-end in the past, I'm not allowing myself to start a new project until I sort this one out.

Socks don't really count as a project though, right? I had to have something to take on the plane and the sweater just wouldn't work. (That's my rationalization and I'm sticking with it).

Spring Forward Socks in my handspun BFL
(Raveled here)

But is our children learning?

Submitted without (much) comment:

A long overdue update!

For now I'm blogging here:
Suburban Sodbusters

I may be back with knitting sometime after September.

Today's Lesson

Apparently my new favorite color is 'out of stock' with 'unavailable' being a close second.

::sigh::

ETA: how could I forget the also popular 'discontinued'?

FO Report - Leaf Lace Shawl

the oh-so-flattering back view

Pattern: Leaf Lace Shawl by Fiber Trends

Yarn: Lisa Souza Baby Alpaca Lace

Colorway: Olive Tones

Started: November 2007

Finished: January 2008

Measurements (unblocked/blocked)

Top edge: 58 inches / 74 inches

Center (top to bottom): 26 / 38.5 inches

Side (one side of "V"): 34 / 54.5 inches

Needles: Knit Picks circular 2.75 mm

Project Summary

I originally started this project in July 2007, but I wasn't happy with how it was progressing so I ripped it out and restarted in in November 2007.

Progress as of 11/21/07

The initial appearance of the shawl was, as Mrs. G pointed out, not unlike that of a stingray.

Note: Provided for comparison purposes only.
This is not an actual shawl image
(image from Google images)

As the shawl progressed and the stitch count grew (this shawl pattern starts from the bottom point) it was difficult to determine that any progress was being made since the total size of the shawl never seemed to change. I started placing a pin to mark my progress at the end of each week.

Some weeks showed more progress than others.
The closely spaced pins represent the hectic weeks of mid-December

The Leaf Lace Shawl has an easy and easily memorized lace pattern and a good choice, I think, for a first time lace knitter. Unfortunately, my choice of a fairly fine yarn and small needles meant nearly 10 additional chart repeats in order to get the size I wanted.

By the time I reached 622 stitches on the needle, knitting ennui threatened to derail the project since each row was taking about 40 minutes to complete. I originally planned to make the shawl larger but made the decision to end at 27 chart repeats.

The lunar landscape of the unblocked shawl

Needle Liberation Day - January 22, 2008

Unblocked shawl

Blocking
(an excellent use for that newly spare bedroom)

Blocking closeup

The pattern calls for beading on the final row. I wanted some additional sparkle so I worked in extra beads in the lace edging.

Finished!

Mr. CPA took several 'FO' photos that actually show me smiling, but as luck would have it those shots did not turn out for one reason or another (as judged by me). So the official FO shot is the one of me looking mildly amused. (a totaly fortuitous shot that managed to slip in between the usual photos of me in mid-sentance, with a goofy closed-eye smile or enhanced with blurry arm movements).

March 1 – Caterpillar Day

"Life depends on a silken thread" - club motto

Mr. CPA and I aren’t exactly what you would call ‘joiners’. We’re a bit quirky and non-conforming and we like it that way.

However we are thrilled that 26 years ago today, Mr. CPA became a member of an exclusive club in which almost no one actively seeks membership. The Caterpillar Club.

There are no dues or meetings and the club is fairly small because only about 10 people per year qualify for membership.

The rule for membership is so simple that it is contained in a single sentence:
Members of the club must have saved their lives by using a parachute to jump out of a disabled aircraft.

Now Mr. CPA might point out that he did not jump so much as he was forcefully flung out by the centrifugal force of the plane’s inverted spin after he popped the canopy immediately following impact, but this, dear reader, is a technicality of a very minor sort.

The headline from the front page of the Pensacola Journal

The distressingly meager remains of the two planes



The rip cord that opened the best parachute ever

As it turns out, Mr. CPA had not personally checked his parachute before leaving because things had been a bit rushed getting ready for the training flight. He thought about it as he and the instructor hurried out to the plane but told himself, "I'm not going to need it."


To show his gratitude to the diligent workers who had obviously both packed the chute well and checked it correctly, Mr. CPA (in his then capacity of Mr. Marine Corp 2nd Lt.) bought a case of beer for each of the parachute packers on duty that day. Because when you're a young guy in your early twenties on military pay, a case of beer is a lot of gratitude.


But really? It wasn't enough.

* Caterpillar club image used with permission by Wikipedia

(see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:CaterpillarClubPin.jpg)

My latest FO

I know my updates have been pretty intermittent lately but I've been busy behind the scenes - honest.

My latest finished project isn't exactly knitting but it is knitting-related, in fact it's Seriously Unravelled.

The leaf lace shawl did finally see Needle Liberation Day and had a lovely debut at Madrona Fiber Arts. (photographic evidence and project notes soon).

Out of the loop

My friend Nancy stopped by my cubicle at work last week to chat about knitting. Before she left she leaned in a bit and whispered that she was planning to go buy some new yarn over the weekend.

"I don't know why I'm whispering about buying yarn." Nancy said as she realized what she was doing, "I guess I don't want my budget to know about it."